The Love That Never Dies
by Earth Star
Summary: The now happily married, Lina and Gourry, takes their family on vacation.  However, they encounter someone that Gourry prayed to never meet again. LinaGourry


Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers and I don't wish to make a profit from this story.

Author's Note: This story was written for DQBunny in the Slayers Request group on livejournal. Also, while the characters Rowen and Lori belong to me, the character Emilie belongs to DQBunny.

"_The Love that Never Dies"_

It was a perfect beach day. The skies were clear of foreboding rain clouds, the sun was shining as bright as a polished gold coin and the waves crashed along the shore, beckoning swimmers to come in to play. Lori's little face beamed. She had heard about the ocean from her parents, but to see it in real life was amazing. "Water! Water!" she squealed, leaping like a frog who had discovered a perfect lily pad. Lori was set to race out and begin her much needed splashing, when her plans were foiled by Emilie grabbing her arm.

"Stay put."

Lori pouted at her big sister. "But I want to go swimming."

"So do I, but Papa told us we had to wait for him and Mama."

"Ah, let her go and drown herself," said Rowen, from his seat on the beach blanket. "It will be a lot less noisy that way."

Emilie glared at her brother, then gave an exasperated sigh. She could now sympathize how her Aunt Luna must feel. Being the eldest sibling wasn't an easy task.

"What's taking Mama and Papa so long?" Lori asked, still staring at the inviting ocean.

Emilie took the bottle of sun block, squeezed a lump into her hand and rubbed it into her skin. "Finishing their breakfast, probably, Mama did sleep in late this morning."

Rowen grumbled as he poked a crab. "I wish they would hurry up. They're such slow pokes."

"Funny, I think it takes a lot longer to get you up in the morning."

Rowen yelped and spun around. "Dad! I hate it when you sneak up on me like that!"

Gourry laughed, ruffling his annoyed son's hair. "Sorry, kiddo, old habits die hard."

"Can we go swimming NOW?" Lori asked, tapping her foot.

"Not yet. We need to wait for your mom first."

Emilie finished rubbing the sun block on her arms. "What's taking her so long? She's not usually..."

The girl trailed off when her grumbling mother appeared. All three children exchanged a concerned look. Lina's eyes were narrowed, her fingers were twitching, and she seemed to carry a desire to punch the living daylights out of the next person that said the wrong thing. These were all the classics signs that their mother was in a bad mood, to say the least.

The tension in the air was enough to scare off any beastman, troll, goblin or even a dragon. Saying nothing, Lina yanked the beach blanket out from beneath Rowen, amazingly without knocking the boy over, and swung it over her shoulder. She threw Gourry a 'You are so dead' glare and continued to march down the beach. "Alright, hurry up! Let's get going!," she yelled like a general.

However, the three siblings stayed where they were standing. Slowly, they all turned to their father, who appeared unaffected by Lina's dangerous mood. Rowen frowned, in a similar fashion to what his mother had been doing. "Dad, what did you do?"

Gourry tilted his head. "What makes you think your mother is mad at me?"

"Because, she only gets like this when you've done something to tick her off."

Emilie coughed. "Well, that and also when one of your inventions blows up part of the house, Rowen."

"Hey! That has only ever happened once...okay, twice if you include the time when I started the fire in the bathroom, but that one wasn't my fault!"

"Calm down," Gourry said, waving his hands. "Look, it's not that big of a deal. Your mom is just mad that I ate the last of the crab they had here for breakfast."

Lori stuck out her tongue in disgust. Why would her mother be angry about that? In her opinion, crabs were gross. They looked like some type of giant bug.

"Papa, why didn't you just save her some?" Emilie asked. "One of the reasons Mama wanted to come to this place was to eat the crab here, right?"

Gourry kneeled down to his daughter's level. "Normally, I would have, except that I didn't know it was the last crab and your mom was still sleeping at the time."

Rowen sighed, slapping his forehead. "Oh great, so now we got Mom-zilla all because of a stupid crab."

Gourry laughed. "Relax, I've seen your mother in far worse moods than this. Give her a couple of hours, some ice cream to cool off and she'll be in a much better mood. Trust me."

Emilie and Rowen frowned. In their gut, they shared the unsettled feeling that this was going to be a long day.

The Inverse family had selected a spot down the beach that satisfied all of their needs. Close to the water for swimming, hardly any people around to disturb them and the most crucial necessity of all, it was right next to an ice cream stand to sate their hunger later.

Lori and Emilie plunged into the water together and were shortly joined by Gourry. Rowen had no craving to get wet as he watched the three splash each other silly. Instead, he perched on the wet sand to build the ultimate sand castle. Lina, still in a foul mood, had thrown on her sunglasses and spread out on the beach blanket. Her husband may have unrightly deprived her of the crab, but she would at least get a perfect tan out of this.

When the kids declared it was time for an ice cream break, Gourry was the one to fetch the treat since he could tell that Lina was still in no mood to get it. Once he returned and all three of his children were happily licking their ice cream, Gourry offered one to his wife as a peace offering.

Lina stared at the triple fudge swirl like it was old hard candy and swiftly turned onto her stomach. Gourry sighed. "Come on Lina. You can't still be mad at me. It was just a crab."

"Just a crab?!" Lina bolted upward, almost throwing her sunglasses off in the process. "It was a snow dragon crab! Do you have any idea how rare they are?" Her fists tightened. "People have said it's the most delicious crab in the world. It's rumoured that people have drooled for days on end after just glancing at it." She lunged and grabbed Gourry by his shoulders. "They are only ever found in this area, during the summer time. I spent weeks planning this vacation so I could get my hands on one and YOU ATE THE LAST ONE WITHOUT EVEN SAVING ME SOME!!"

"Lina, for the last time, if I've known it was the last one, I would have saved you some!"

"That doesn't help my deprived tummy!"

"My, my, even on vacation you two never change."

The sudden voice made Lina jump. She spun around, slamming against Gourry's chest. She groaned. As if her vacation couldn't get any worse. "Xellos, what the hell are you doing here?"

Wearing shorts, a tropical shirt and holding a pineapple drink in his hand, Xellos grinned. "Why Lina? Can't an old acquittance say hello?"

"Not when he has a bad habit of getting us into trouble," Gourry remarked, sourly.

The three children spun around startled. Upon seeing their visitor, Lori ducked behind her big sister. For some reason, the man her nervous. There was just something creepy about him.

Rowen stared blankly. "Mom, who is this?"

Lina choked. "Rowen, don't tell me you honestly can't remember him?!"

Rowen stroked his chin, thinking hard. Where had he seen this guy before? Then his memory clicked. "Oh yeah! This is the guy whose cape Emilie and I accidently set on fire."

Emilie nodded. "That's right. Although, I recall Uncle Zelgadis being really happy about it.

Xellos twitched. He didn't dare show it, but he was still annoyed about that. It had been his favorite cape.

"So, do you mind telling us what evil plot brings you here?" Lina asked, with her eyebrow arched.

Xellos tilted his head like a perplexed cat. "Ms. Lina, why do you always assume that I have some ulterior motive. I'm simply here on vacation."

Gourry scratched his head. "Mazoku take vacations?"

"Of course we do. Sinister plotting is much easier to achieve when you give the mind a break."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Lina grumbled. "That still doesn't explain why you decided to bother us."

"I was getting to that," Xellos said, taking a sip of his pineapple drink. "You see, I was dropping by to say hello, when I ran into a man. Apparently, he has been searching for you, Mr. Gourry, for a long time."

Gourry frowned. Who could have been looking for him? The first came to mind was Zangulus, but they had just seen each other last month. Someone from his family? No, he hadn't spoken to them for years. Really, the only person he could think of was... His blood suddenly ran cold. He gasped for air. His legs quivered. No! It couldn't be HIM?!

"When I told the man I was going to see you, he insisted that I bring him along..."

"Ms. Lala!" A giant dust whirlwind flew down the beach. With the speed and power of a tiger, the figure lunged for the swordsman. With his fear and instincts taking control, Gourry and Lina bolted from the beast's path, leaving only a handful of beach blanket and sand. Lina ran to her children, to shield them from the flying sand. Gourry grabbed the closest weapon he could get, the beach umbrella. Xellos sipped his drink, grinning in amusement. This looked to be an entertaining show.

Gourry watched fearfully as the sand cleared. The figure stood, looking left to right frantically, then zooming in on Gourry. "Ms. Lala!" He held out his arms, ready for a lover's embrace. "At long last your hero Volun has found you!"

WHACK!

Gourry sharply knocked Volun's head with his mighty beach umbrella. There was no way he was going to let this lunatic get within touching distance. "You stay right where you are," Gourry ordered fiercely.

Lina groaned and scowled at Xellos. "Why did you bring him here?"

The Mazoku shrugged. "I was merely offering assistance, and I thought this might be fun."

Lina slapped her forehead. She should have learned after all of these years that whenever Xellos made an appearance she and Gourry should just run.

"Mama, why is that man trying to attack Papa?" Emilie asked. In her entire short life, she had never seen her father so annoyed, scared and ready to kill someone all at the same time.

Gourry took a backward step, not taking his eyes off of Volun. "This guys is Volun and it's all your mother's fault that I'm in this mess..."

"Ms. Lala!" Volun cut in, tears dwelling in his eyes. "How can you call our connection to each other a mess? Our love is the most wonderful and purest creation that has ever existed. Our love is..."

"Will you be quiet!"

A pale Rowen tugged on Gourry's shorts. "Wait, Dad, you mean you and this guy...were lovers?"

At first Gourry's brain didn't fully register what his son had said as he was carefully watching Volun's movement. However, as the words sunk in, Gourry gaped and, turned, horrified to his children. "What?! No! It wasn't anything like that!"

"It's the love story for ages to come!" Volun declared, not listening to the swordsman's protests. "It was love at first sight, when I agreed to escort Ms. Lala and her sisters across the sea. We were to be married, except tragedy struck and we were separated." His eyes brightened in a manner that greatly disturbed the children and Gourry. "But I have finally found you my Darling, after all of these years."

Emilie blinked, stunned. "Wow, this sounds like something out of a Yaoi story."

"What's Yaoi?" Lori asked.

"That's not it at all!" Gourry yelled, throwing the picnic basket at Volun. "Lina, this whole mess was your fault. Tell the kids the truth!"

Gourry's one flame of hope of clearing up this misunderstanding was snuffed out. An eerie evil grin spread across Lina's face. He knew he was in trouble.

Lina folded her arms, and gave a baffled expression. "By what ever do you mean Gourry? I hope you're not saying that because you think I'm jealous of your first true love."

"Lina!" Gourry couldn't believe that his wife could be so cruel.

"This can not be happening!" Rowen cried, aghast.

"Hey Volun!" Lina waved, smiling from ear to ear. "Why don't you give Gour...I mean Lala a big kiss?"

Volun laughed. "Well of course, I was planning that from the beginning." As Volun advanced, Gourry yelped with the fear of a rabbit being hunted by a fox and ran.

"Wait for me Ms. Lala!"

Lina rolled side to side on the sand laughing. Emilie shook her head. Lori blinked confused. Rowen banged his head against a tree, hoping to forget everything that had befallen his father moments before.

80808080808080808080808

The girls spent a couple of hours splashing each other and playing among the waves until Emilie felt it was time to take a break. Dripping with salt water, Emilie held Lori's hand and went to Rowen, who was sitting on the beach blanket.

The boy was grumbling as he watched the scene before him. Lori snatched a towel to dry herself off, then plunked down next to her brother.

"So what are Papa and Mr. Volun doing now?"

Rowen sighed as if he was someone who was going to reveal the plot of a really bad romance novel. "So far, that Volun guy has caught Dad in a hug, but then Dad flipped him and got away. Then, Volun tried to get him to share a banana split, which Dad shoved into his face."

Emilie frowned as she dried her hair. "And now?"

Rowen pointed at the scene before them, his eyes twitching. "Volun has chased Dad up a tree and is singing what I think is a love song."

Emilie sighed. "Has Mama done anything yet?"

Irritated, Rowen shook his head. "No, she is still with Xellos working on a tan." Rowen snarled. "I can't take any more of this. At the rate things are going, Dad is going to have to marry that guy just so he'll leave him alone." He shuddered at that thought. Having to live in the same house with Volun and...oh no, what if he insisted on being called Papa Volun? That was beyond scary.

"But...he can't do that!" Lori cried. "Mama wouldn't let that happen right?"

Rowen drummed his fingers on his knee, taking a worried glace at his tanning mother. "I don't know. Mom seemed pretty ticked and she didn't exactly try to get rid of Volun." A sudden thought occurred to the boy. "Oh man, maybe she did that because Dad really does...like that guy..."

Tears swelled from Lori's eyes. "So, Mama and Papa don't love each other anymore?"

"Stop it, both of you," Emilie said, folding her arms. "Mama and Papa do love each other and I'm sure Mama will get rid of Mr. Volun when she feels like it."

"Well, I'm not taking any chances!," Rowen stood, forming fists. "I refuse to have this weirdo guy walk in and wreck our family!" He began to stomp forward. "I'm getting rid of this guy, no matter what it takes!"

Lori cheered and quickly followed. "Go get him big brother!" She never knew her brother could be such a hero.

Emilie groaned and also stood up. Enough was enough. She knew her parents well enough to know that their mother was just playing a joke on their dad. Sure, they got into arguments all the time, but, Emilie knew her parents loved each other. Nothing could ever tear them apart. Emilie was originally planning to let her parents work it out themselves, except that she didn't think Rowen and Lori would become so upset by it. As a big sister, she had to correct this matter. Also, she had a feeling that if she didn't, Rowen might try to cast a few fireballs which probably wouldn't help the situation much.

Emilie went over to the spot where her mother and Xellos were sunning themselves. As her eldest daughter approached, Lina was flipping onto her back. "Hey Xellos, pass me the suntan lotion."

"Certainly, Ms. Lina. Would you like me to do your back?"

Lina raised an eyebrow. "Let's see, do I want you near me and touching my body when I have my bare back to you?"

Xellos smiled. "I'll take that as a 'No, thank you' then."

"Mama, Don't you think that Papa has suffered enough?"

Lina turned her head to her daughter. "Not just yet. Don't worry, I'll save your Papa in a couple more hours."

Emilie sighed. "Mama, I know you're going to forgive Papa eventually, but you really should do it now. You're scaring Lori and Rowen is about to do something stupid."

Lina sat up, removing her sunglasses. "Stupid as in?"

Emilie folded her arms. "He has the exact same look you have when you're about to roast a bandit."

Lina cursed. "Alright, I'll step in. Xellos, save my spot."

"Whatever you say Ms. Lina, although I was enjoying the torment Mr. Volun was giving Gourry. It was very tasty."

Emilie thought it was best to ignore the comment as she took her mother's hand and led Lina to her terrorized father. As Lina got closer, her eyes widened at the sight.

Her husband was dangling from the top of the tree and appeared to be as stunned as Lina. Rowen had jumped and tackled Volun's head. The boy was letting out powerful war cries, while hitting Volun with the man's own small harp that he had used to serenade Gourry minutes before. Volun himself was trying to grab the boy and shake him off, but Rowen held on tight, refusing to lose. Lori was keeping her distance, yet was proudly cheering her brother on in his great battle.

Lina sweat-dropped. Truthfully, she wasn't surprised at her son's actions. After all, he took after her and had inherited her fiery temper. With a tired sigh, Lina strolled up and in one fell swoop, yanked her son off of Volunand plunked him on the ground.

Rowen glared. "Mom, I was winning!"

Lina was set to argue with her son, except that Volun had swiftly seized her hand and shook it eagerly. Tears of gratitude poured from his eyes. "Oh, thank you Ms. Lili! I didn't know how I could defeat such a powerful enemy."

"Oh brother," Emilie muttered, watching Rowen grin at being called a 'powerful enemy.'

Lina rolled her eyes as she took her hand back. "Listen Volun, I hate to break it to you, but you can't have 'Lala'. She's already taken."

Volun trembled, as if Lina had just threatened to stab him. "No, that can't be true."

"It is," Lina replied, flatly. "These kids here, including the one that tackled you, are hi..er..her kids. So, she's happily married."

"NNNOOO!" Volun frantically gazed up to the tree where Gourry was hanging. "Say it isn't so Ms. Lala!"

"Damn right it is!" Gourry yelled. "And before you ask, no I will not get a divorce."

Volun growled. "Then your lover and I shall have to fight to the death..."

"I don't think that will be necessary." Lina folded her arms and grinned. "What if I could get you another girl?"

Volun snarled. "Ms. Lili, I respect you but please don't assume my love can waver so easily. No one can replace Ms. Lala."

Lina smirked. "Not even if she's ten times more beautiful and I can guarantee she's single."

Volun glanced from the corner of his eye, while trying not to appear too interested. "Beautiful...well that's tempting...No, impossible. There is no one I can truly love like Ms. Lala..."

Lina patted him on the back. "Aw, come on. Just give it a chance. You'll fall head over heels for her. Guys are taken by her all the time. You can ask my friend Zel if you want proof."

Volun stroked his chin. "If I did want to find this girl, and I'm not saying I do, where would I go to find her?"

"Easy. Go to Femille and ask for Miwan."

"And you think I would like her?"

Lina smirked. "Trust me. I think you two were made for each other."

Volun thought long and hard for a full minute. "Perhaps you are right, Ms. Lili." He then looked up into the tree again. "Ms. Lala, it does pain me to say this, but I shall try to love another. However, if I cannot find my true love in this Miwan girl, I shall come back to you."

"Oh...joy," Gourry grumbled.

With his new mission, Volun quickly said his goodbyes and sent forth to find his potential true love.

Once the man was no longer visible, Gourry finally felt it was safe to climb down. "Lina, not that I'm not grateful for you getting rid of him, but isn't a bit mean to have Miwan deal with him?"

Lina shook her head. "Don't worry. If he can even get into the city, I doubt Volun will be that big of a problem. Besides, Volun probably has to go through Miwan's mother first and she can deal with him."

Gourry nodded. "Good point." His eyes narrowed. "Although, I would have appreciated it more if you had gotten rid of him earlier."

Lina laughed. "Ah, come on Jellyfish-brain. Where's your sense of humour? Besides, after putting you through that I feel much better and am willing to forgive you."

Gourry turned his head away. "Oh really, and what makes you think I'll forgive you?"

The sorceress gave a seductive smile, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Because I'll be making it up to you tonight in the bedroom."

Gourry perked up as he hugged his wife tightly. "In that case, I will probably let this go."

"Probably?"

Lina felt a sudden tug on her bathing suit. "Mommy?"

Instantly remembering that the children were present, Lina whirled around, blushing madly. "Um...what is it kiddo?"

Lori tilted her head to one side. "Who's Miwan?"

"Yeah, Mom. This is the first time I've heard of this Miwan person," said Rowen

Emilie's eyes narrowed. "She's not anything like Ms. Naga that we met a few years ago is she?"

Gourry coughed. "Sorry kids, but I think it's best that Uncle Zelgadis tells you about Miwan."

"And when you do ask him, make sure you ask for A LOT of details," Lina grinned madly.

The three Inverse children looked at each other and shrugged. However, unbeknownst to them, in the library of Seyrune's royal Palace their 'Uncle Zelgadis' felt a sudden chill run down his spine.


End file.
